The Long Way

Chapter-Seven

The Long Way

Gathering the books I wanted, I slipped Spell Shaper I and II, Life Mage I, Elementalist I, and Spellwright I and II into my pack.

As I got ready to leave the tower, I thought about the staves.

I made my way to the fire, which had gone cold, and moved the staves to the training room. After that, I made my way back out to the courtyard, where everyone was waiting for me.

“Are you finally ready?” Emiri asked.

I checked my canteen and knife, then put my belt on loosely around my robes so I could get to them easily if I needed to. I even had my flashlight clipped to my pack just in case, even though I could use my Illuminate Area spell.

Because nothing beat a backup.

I had put some monster jerky in my old jerky bag and asked Emiri if she could store some of it.

She just glared at me.

I decided to put it in the fridge after that.

Then I was ready to go.

As we left, I turned and closed the gate, then nodded.

“Until next time, tower,” I mumbled under my breath.

I turned to find Lyris inside my personal space again, close enough that I nearly walked into her.

“What was that?” she asked innocently.

I sighed. “Come on, weirdo.”

She giggled and kept pace with me. “Weirdo, huh? Who is the one wearing ancient robes and walking around with a staff too big for him?”

I shook my head in exasperation.

“Is she always like this?” I asked the rest of the group.

In unison, they all said, “Yes.”

I looked at Lyris, and she smiled at me.

“Are you going to stick to me the whole time?” I asked.

Lyris chuckled. “Of course. You are the lowest level here.”

I sighed again. “Lucky me.”

Her eyes widened. “You really think so? I’m so glad we found you. Some people don’t appreciate me like that.”

I just chuckled despite myself. She was kind of growing on me.

We walked for about half the day through the forest, following a broken trail that looked like it had been paved at one point. Stone blocks stuck up out of the ground here and there. They didn’t make it obvious, but looking forward, you could see the path clearly.

We came to a clearing, and I realized Horus wasn’t in front of us anymore.

When did he disappear? I thought.

Then I turned and saw a large deer thing run into the clearing.

A whoosh and a slam followed.

I raised my staff, then relaxed a bit.

It was the drake. Or at least, it was a drake.

I raised my staff again because I had no idea if this was the same one, or if this one was dangerous.

The rest of the party stopped, looked at the drake, and nodded. Then they just kept walking.

“Uh,” I started, “are you guys not worried about the murder lizard?”

Lyris giggled, as she does, and Emiri looked over her shoulder at me. “Drakes are generally harmless unless you give them a reason not to be. It’s best to just give them space.”

I looked toward the drake. It was tearing at the deer, a bit of flesh hanging from its mouth as it looked directly at me and nodded.

I smiled and nodded back. Seems this is the same one, and it recognizes me. Lovely.

Lyris had remained oddly quiet during this part of the trip. She scanned the woods and the road ahead constantly, which made me do the same.

She broke the silence eventually, though.

“Hey,” she began, “what is your world like?”

I looked down at her and thought for a moment. “My world is crowded and busy. Everyone is constantly doing something.”

She smiled at me. “So basically like this one, then.”

I squinted at that. “Yeah, but we have cars everywhere, and the most dangerous thing you could run into is another person.”

“What are cars?” Lyris asked, tilting her head.

I smiled and thought about how to explain it. “A car is something we use for transport. Kind of like a horse and carriage, or a boat on land. It has four wheels, an engine that makes it move, and controls that let you drive it. We have more than a billion of them, and they are fast.”

Lyris thought for a moment before replying. “Are they faster than a horse?”

I nodded. “They are a lot faster than a horse.”

“And you said earlier,” she said as a frown formed on her face, “that your world does not have magic?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding rapidly. “All of it made by people from a lot of different places, in different buildings, working on different parts of the car.”

Lyris laughed and shook her head. “Billions of cars made by billions of people working together... That sounds like a kind of magic to me.”

I scowled, then laughed. “You got billions of people from that?”

“Yeah,” she said, looking at me like I was an idiot. “Why would over a billion cars be needed if there weren’t at least that many people?”

I raised an eyebrow at her and realized she was way sharper than I had given her credit for. “That is a fair conclusion.”

“I have a question for you, then,” I said, changing the subject. “How many people do you think live on this planet?”

She tapped her finger against her chin and looked up, clearly doing some mental math. “Maybe... I don’t know. A few hundred million, but that is a guess. The world has only been truly stable for the past five hundred years or so. There was a time before the Eurathi when we were facing extinction.”

I paused because I couldn’t imagine an extinction event on my own world.

“So the Eurathi what, protected... what do you call yourselves, the Ishani? While the world was falling apart?”

“Something like that,” she said. “They didn’t protect us from everything. They mostly gave us tools to protect ourselves. The system, for instance.”

“So what,” I said, trying to be as tactful as possible, “they implanted everyone with the system and left some kind of way for everyone else to get an implant?”

Her expression changed rapidly before settling on confusion. “Implant? No. We’re all born with our system, and it begins changing us when we’re around twelve. There’s no implantation.” She smiled coyly and added, “That sounds icky. Maybe a little kinky.”

I shook my head, trying to get that image out of my mind, and sighed. “I regret saying that now. Either way, how does the system spread, then? Like a virus?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It just is. It’s been this way a long time.”

Our conversation was interrupted by thunderous, fast-approaching footfalls from something large running toward us.

I raised my staff as Bhoarn raised his shield and unsheathed his sword. Emiri took several steps back and raised her staff as well.

Horus came running out of the trees, yelling, “Get ready!” as he ran between us. Once he was behind me, he spun around and shot an arrow into the woods at something I couldn’t see yet.

Suddenly, Bhoarn pulsed with a golden glow and raised his sword over his shield just before an extremely large bear-looking beast burst through the trees.

It had bone spikes on its back and shoulders.

The beast slammed into Bhoarn and stopped dead. Bhoarn barely moved. I stared. Nothing that big should have been stopped by one man. I didn't care how good he is.

Emiri cast something that looked like a lance of fire. It struck the bear thing and pushed it back a bit farther, but it didn’t seem to hurt it much.

It roared loud enough to shake me out of my stupor, and I realized her spellcasting was way different from mine. It was nearly instantaneous. She only spoke something into the air, then took a couple more steps back and asked if I was going to help.

I nodded and began casting Fire Bolt. The patterns and symbols formed in front of me, rotating until the spell launched and struck the bear in the chest, right where Emiri had hit it.

It roared again and looked at me before swinging its massive paw at Bhoarn.

Another arrow whistled past my ear, striking the bear in the eye as Bhoarn blocked the claw with his sword. Sparks flew like the bear’s claws were made of metal.

Emiri turned fully to me and yelled, “What in the void of souls was that?”

Bhoarn yelled through gritted teeth, “Focus!”

I noticed then that he was bleeding from the side of his face. I began casting Ice Shard through my staff, using the empowering ability it had, and aimed it at the beast’s other eye.

It was hard to get a target on it because it was thrashing about, pawing at the arrow in its eye. Bhoarn backed up and stabbed at it from a distance, which made the bear look up just as my Ice Shard shot toward it.

I missed its eye, but the shard slammed into its cheek and buried deep.

It roared again as a blue light encompassed Bhoarn, and his cheek began to rapidly heal right in front of me.

Three more arrows whistled past me as I began casting again. This time, I was casting Push to try and knock it off its feet.

Emiri cast again, this time forming a ball of blue flame that moved slower toward the bear. When it struck, the fire washed over the beast.

The bear roared and started swinging wildly at Bhoarn.

My Push spell landed, hitting the bear in the face and knocking it onto its back.

Bhoarn didn’t waste a second. He jumped high into the air, higher than was reasonable for a human, much less a human in full plate, and buried his blade deep into the bear’s chest.

The bear spasmed and swung its claws, trying to get Bhoarn off of it, but Bhoarn just took the hits as he twisted the blade.

A moment later, the bear thing stilled.

Then the golden mist began to flow into the group, and some of the group’s mist redirected toward me.

This was not like the first time it had happened.

I felt the euphoric rush of gaining experience, but then my chest started burning. A moment later, that burn flowed out into my limbs.

I screamed and hit the ground.

Curling into a ball, I breathed heavily until, moments later, it stopped.

It left me feeling like my head was going to explode.

Then I felt numb. That is when a window popped up.

Your party has gained 42,500 experience for defeating a Level 31 Jagged Ursa.

Your contribution share is 9,200 experience.

You have gained 10,000 experience from excess experience that could not be absorbed by your party.

You are now Level 12.

You have 21 points to distribute.

You have gained 70 additional Health Points.

You have gained 70 additional Mana.

Your skill Mana Control has gained 12 points.

Push has increased to 96%.

Fire Bolt increased to 16%.

Ice Shard has been fully integrated. Your spell can now be slotted for rapid casting. You have 5 slots remaining.

Your Wisdom has gained 4 points.

I felt Lyris grab me, panic in her voice. “Are you okay? I didn’t see you get hit. What happened?”

I closed the window as I was pushed over onto my back and looked up.

Bhoarn was at my feet, looking into the forest, while Horus was at my head, looking the opposite way. Emiri had her arms crossed, looking at me like I had done something wrong, while Lyris had her glowing hands on my chest.

Lyris looked up to Emiri with concern. “He isn’t hurt, but his shade is off somehow.”

I coughed and sat up. “What do you mean my shade is off? And I’m fine. It’s not the first time my system has betrayed me.”

She looked down at me as Emiri crouched to get closer. Emiri spoke first. “Your shade is what tells your body how to heal. It is connected to your soul. What do you mean this isn’t the first time your system has betrayed you?”

“My system,” I said, coughing again, “isn’t like yours, I’m gathering. It was some kind of test. According to some logs I found, this system killed people. It wasn’t refined like the one I’m guessing you have.”

At that point, Bhoarn and Horus turned and looked at me.

Lyris frowned deeply and patted me on the shoulder. “Just sit there for a moment, okay?”

She stood and pulled Emiri to the side.

I looked up at Bhoarn and Horus and frowned. “Never a good thing when the doctor wants to talk to someone else in private.”

Bhoarn crossed his arms, giving me a sympathetic look.

“We’ll camp here tonight. Horus, can you loot that monster? I think that came from a new dungeon. The system didn’t have a name for it.”

Horus gave him an odd salute. I almost laughed because it reminded me of a Boy Scout salute, but I thought better of it.

I turned to Bhoarn and coughed again. “The thing was called a Jagged Ursa, according to my system, if that helps.”

He frowned. “Your system is different. I really hope it doesn’t kill you.”

Lyris and Emiri returned. Lyris had a small smile on her face, but Emiri’s expression was unreadable.

Lyris knelt beside me and put her hand on my chest. “Good news. The system is likely not going to kill you, at least not according to the stories. We should look into it, but others survived the system you have. Beyond that, all we have are stories. Some good, some terrible, but nothing I would call fact.”

Emiri looked at Lyris before looking back down at me. “Lyris is trying to make you feel better. We don’t know enough, and we should actually do some research when we get into the city. For now, though, you shouldn’t fight with us. You may make it worse.”

I chuckled. “No. If the system kills me, then so be it. I’m not just going to stop being useful.”

“Your choice,” she said, giving me a sad look. “I won’t try to control you. I just don’t want to see you dead either.”

“Tell that to Horus,” I said, turning to wink at him.

Then I just stared.

He was standing over a completely skinned bear. Its claws, bone spikes, and teeth were stacked in a neat pile on one side, while the meat had already been sectioned into all kinds of different cuts, all sitting on the freshly skinned pelt.

I worked my jaw for a moment before finally speaking.

“How in the hell did you do that so fast?”

“Looting,” he said, looking up at me. “Ability I bought because I hate skinning monsters.”

I blinked. “Huh. You can choose abilities? Mine made me choose Accelerated Recovery first.”

Horus frowned at me. “That’s too bad. Identify is the best first choice. But our system doesn’t force choices on us. We have to choose ourselves. Guess that is one thing we have that is better.”

I smiled. “Yeah, it made me choose that next. I still have an ability point left. Do you know how to bring up the window to make a choice?”

Horus turned all the way and stared at me. “Wait, you have three ability points before level twenty? That is just not fair.”

“Look, Adam, was it?” he said as he approached. “I apologize for nearly taking your head off. Honestly, I’ve been waiting for you to hit me in the back with a spell.”

He glanced away for a moment before continuing. “As to your question, just think about viewing an ability list and one should pop up. Either way, I’m sorry.”

He stuck out his hand to shake mine.

I looked down at it and smiled. I shook it and chuckled.

“Honestly, you shooting at me was the least scary problem I’ve had in the last week. Don’t worry about it. I am not going to try and take revenge on you for it.”

He patted me on the back and chuckled. “That’s good. I would have killed you for it.”

With that, he walked off into the woods, picking up a log as he went.

I just stared at him and shook my head. “Why is everyone so crazy?”

I turned and jumped nearly out of my skin when I saw Lyris standing right behind me again.

“You know,” she said, chuckling as she looked off in Horus’ direction, “you are the crazy-sounding one here.”

With a wink and a giggle, she walked off in the opposite direction.

I shook my head and chuckled softly, and just before I tried to pull up the window to choose an ability, Emiri walked up. “You chose the Spell Shaper class, didn’t you?”

I sighed and looked at her. “Yes, that is the class I chose. I’m sure my casting style gave it away.”

She chuckled. “Yeah. I’ve never seen a spell in the air like that. It was like I could almost learn the spell by looking at it, which means if someone knew the spell, they could actually counter it before you cast it.”

“Hold on,” I said, pulling up my stats window. “Let me try something.”

I noticed that I had a new slot category. I thought about putting Ice Shard into the slot, and watched it slide in as the slot number dropped to four.

Then I turned and cast Ice Shard into the air over the trees.

It happened fast. No floating spell. No rotating patterns. Just the shard launching into the sky.

I let out a short laugh. “Well, that is convenient.”

Emiri placed her hands on her hips, looking in the direction I had cast. “Why not cast that way all the time?”

“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “It appears I have to use them enough before I can slot them.”

She turned back to me. “How much mana did that use?”

I looked at my bar. “It was about fifteen mana.”

She nodded. “And how many slots?”

“Five before I slotted it. Four now.”

She squinted at me, then shook her head. “Guess you were close to level ten. Apprentice.”

“Wait,” I said, my eyes widening with realization. “You used Identify on me.”

She laughed and gave me a look. “Obviously. You haven’t used it on us yet?”

I shook my head. “No. Seems kind of private.”

She smiled. “Yes, I suppose it is, though the information is limited. All I can see is that you are an Apprentice, and before, you were an Acolyte. So we can guess within ten levels and what type of class you are, but not your exact class or anything else.”

“So you can’t see my name or anything else?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, just that you’re Ishani, which we both know isn’t true, your health, and, of course, Apprentice.”

I focused on her and thought about Identify.

A window popped up.

Emiri Krysile

Ishani Mage (Adept)

Specialization Fire

Level 28

Health: 431/431

Mana: 380/380

I frowned at the window, then closed it. “So, Adept?”

Emiri nodded. “Level twenty to twenty-nine.”

“And Apprentice is ten to nineteen?”, I said.

She nodded. “Now you’re learning.”

At that moment, Horus stepped out of the woods with an armful of logs and sticks. He nodded as he walked past us, then dropped them next to a fire pit Bhoarn had built while Lyris gathered kindling.

They quickly set everything up, then waved Emiri over. She started the fire with a spell.

Then Emiri pulled chairs out of the air and placed them around the fire pit before looking at me and frowning. “I’m sorry, I didn’t pack an extra chair.”

Lyris jumped up and giggled. “That’s okay. He can sit in mine, and I can just sit in his lap.”

Horus shook his head. “You know that is how you make people uncomfortable, right?”

I chuckled and shook my head. I was starting to understand her a little, I think.

“No, I’ll just sit on the ground.”

She smiled, then giggled. “You could just accept it, you know. You don’t have a sleeping bundle. Are you just going to sleep on the ground? I’m willing to share mine.”

Bhoarn’s laughter struck me in the chest like a bass drum. “He can sleep in mine, and I will just switch with Horus when he goes on watch.”

Emiri stood and pulled a table out of the air, then a grill designed to go over a fire. After placing the grill, she pulled out more supplies, and by the time she was done, she had everything she needed to make a meal.

It was getting dark now, so I cast Illuminate Area over Emiri to give her extra light to work under.

She looked up at it and smiled. “You are useful. That is four separate mage disciplines you have shown. I can see the utility in Spell Shaper.”

I sat there for a moment before deciding that I needed to assign my points. Pulling up my stats window, I assigned them.

Name: Adam Wry

Level: 12

Age: 22

Health Points: 328/328

Mana: 270/270 -> 310/310

Class: Spell Shaper

Strength: 17 -> 20

Endurance: 16 -> 18

Constitution: 21

Agility: 14 -> 16

Dexterity: 15 -> 16

Wisdom: 15 -> 20

Intelligence: 26 -> 34

Willpower: 21

Spells:

Push 96%

Illuminate Area 7%

Fire Bolt 16%

Slots (4 remaining)

Ice Shard 100%

Concepts (8)

Force

Radiance

Light

Water

Thermal Transfer

Fire

Heat

Consumption

Skills: Typical (112)

Dodge: 37

Long Staff: 24

Mana Control: 26

Concept Sense: 6

Abilities:

Pain Tolerance I

Accelerated Recovery I

Identify I

Languages:

English

Eurathi

Ishani

With that done, I moved to the abilities list.

There were a lot of choices, but after about ten minutes, I came up with a list of abilities I wanted.

It also seemed that every ten levels gave another ability point, so that was useful.

Loot I

Allows rapid harvesting and processing of defeated monsters, separating useful materials, meat, hide, bone, teeth, claws, cores, and other valuable components with minimal waste.

Mana Sight I

Allows you to perceive active mana flows, spell structures, enchantments, and mana-dense objects.

Spell Stabilization I

Reduces mana loss and instability when forming unslotted spells.

Rapid Patterning I

Increases the speed at which spell structures form during manual casting.

Concept Retention I

Improves your ability to retain and reuse learned concepts, increasing spell integration speed.

Mana Efficiency I

Reduces mana cost of manually shaped spells by a small percentage.

Anima Reinforcement I

Strengthens the connection between body, shade, and system, reducing instability during rapid growth.

Expanded Slot Matrix I

Adds one additional rapid-cast spell slot.

I wanted Loot I for certain, so I spent a point on that.

Mana Sight I seemed useful, and I could see myself getting it in the future, but not now. My whole list was useful, for that matter. Given my concerns about my shade being unstable, though, I decided to spend my other point on Anima Reinforcement I.

After buying it, something inside me shifted.

Not physically. At least, I didn’t think it was physical.

I could feel it, but not with my body. It was more like becoming aware of something that had always been there, only now it had settled into place differently.

After that, I pulled out the Life Mage book and began studying a spell called Minor Heal.

My thought was simple: I could stand in the back, kill things from a distance, and heal the man protecting me.

My Concept Sense gained five points, but I still couldn’t grasp the concepts.

I was really beginning to miss the meditation room back at the tower.

Before I knew it, everyone was settling in for bed.

Bhoarn was standing watch. He nodded at me and pointed to the sleep bundle he had laid out on the ground for me.

“We don’t expect you to pull a watch tonight. It would mess up our rhythm. In the morning, Horus is going to scout for the dungeon. If he can find it, we’ll mark it.”

I woke up to a warm body pressed against my back and flipped over. Lyris was looking at me innocently.

I scrambled out of the sleeping bundle. “What... what are you doing?”

“You talk in your sleep,” she said flatly. “Did you know that?”

Then, for some unknown reason, I just started laughing. Lyris joined me, and I reached a hand down. She took it, and I lifted her.

“What is wrong with you?” I said, half smirking and shaking my head.

“What is wrong with you?” she giggled. “You wake up with a pretty girl in your bed and you completely freak out. Wait, do you like men?” she said, her eyes widening.

I shook my head and laughed. “No, I’m not used to someone as forward as you are.”

She pouted and looked down. “So you don’t think I’m pretty, then?”

“What?” I protested. “No, I mean yes, you’re pretty, just intense.”

She perked up. “You do think I’m pretty.”

I sighed deeply. “I can’t win this, can I?”

She chuckled. “Nope, no you cannot.”

Then she just turned and sat by the fire.

I looked over and Bhoarn was doing his best to hide a laugh, while Horus was not hiding it at all.

Emiri just rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Did you two have fun last night?”

“Wait. What?” I protested all over again. “No, nothing happened last night.”

Bhoarn clearly couldn’t hold it in and laughed so hard the big man actually snorted.

Then I looked back over to Emiri, and she cracked a smile before pretending to focus on breakfast.

“Well,” Horus said, standing, “this has been fun. Enjoy breakfast. I’m going to find that dungeon.”

He pointed in the direction he had run from when he came into the camp with the death bear.

“I found the bear over there, so it’s likely in that direction.”

With that, he walked into the woods and seemed to disappear before he was truly out of sight.

About an hour later, after we picked up the camp and doused the fire, Horus returned.

“Found it. Looks like it is very new. We are likely the only people who know about it.”

Emiri sighed. “We should mark it and bring it to the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“What?” Horus protested. “We have an opportunity to be the first in a dungeon. First pick of the loot and all.”

Emiri looked at me, then back at Horus. “Yes, but we have a low level here. Do you plan on protecting him in a, what, level thirty dungeon?”

Lyris jumped up. “I’ll protect him. He’ll be fine with me. He seems to like to stay back anyway and just cast.”

I frowned. “Well, she has me there. I am fine with whatever you guys want to do. Besides, a dungeon run with an experienced party actually sounds fun.”

Bhoarn chuckled. “You have guts, but dungeons aren’t anything to take lightly or consider fun.”

Emiri nodded. “Bhoarn is right. Dungeons are unpredictable, and Adam could die from a wrong step.”

I shook my head. “Honestly, I’ll be fine. I have Lyris watching me.”

Lyris looked at me, shocked, and Bhoarn shrugged.

“If you are interested in dying, I won’t stop you, and we could really use the loot.”

Horus smiled. “Looks like we are three to one, Emiri.”

Lyris huffed. “What, my vote doesn’t count?”

Horus laughed. “I was including you in that vote. His vote doesn’t really count. He doesn’t know what he is getting into.”

I scowled, then sighed. “Shouldn’t I get a vote? It is my...” I stopped, then frowned. “Wait. Never mind. Continue.”